Differential Diagnosis of Tumoral Lesions in the Spinal Canal in Patients Undergoing Hemodialysis

STUDY DESIGN: A retrospective study. PURPOSE: To clarify the features useful for the differential diagnosis of spinal canal tumoral lesions in patients undergoing hemodialysis. OVERVIEW OF LITERATURE: Tumoral lesions in the spinal canal are rarely found in hemodialysis patients. Therefore, the differential diagnosis of tumoral lesions in the spinal canal in hemodialysis patients has been very difficult. METHODS: Spinal canal tumors in 17 patients undergoing hemodialysis or continuous ambulatory peritoneal dialysis were investigated. Histopathological analysis was conducted for all specimens obtained during surgery. The tumoral lesions were categorized into 3 groups on the basis of histopathology: spinal cord tumor, amyloidoma, and other. Patient medical history and diagnostic images of each group were reviewed. RESULTS: Eight of 17 cases were histopathologically diagnosed as spinal cord tumors and were neurinomas, 6 were amyloidomas, and 3 were classified as other. The rate of spinal cord tumors was 47.1% (8 of 17 cases), which revealed the most frequent lesion type. The rate of amyloidomas and other types was 35.3% (6 of 17 cases) and 17.6% (3 of 17cases), respectively. In the amyloidoma group, the mean duration of hemodialysis (24.3 years) was longer than that of spinal cord tumors and other types (9.2 years and 8.6 years, respectively). All spinal cord tumors were intradural extramedullary, whereas all amyloidomas and other types were extradural. CONCLUSIONS: The rate of each tumoral lesion, the duration of hemodialysis, and the tumoral localization are important features for the differential diagnosis of tumoral lesions in the spinal canal in hemodialysis patients.